—One-Shot— A Breath Of Fresh Air
by FrostKing104
Summary: —I'm not trying to slight characters, or make them into bad guys. I just thought this idea would be fun to write.— A dazed Gregor and Lapblood have an interesting conversation in the jungle. Mostly just Gregor complaining about his luck. Not that he doesn't have every right to. ONE-SHOT. Rated T for a single curse.


_—This is the re-edited version of this story.—_

_Please visit my profile page for **disclaimer**_

—

Thank you, everyone, who has supported me as a writer. Whether that is by Favoriting me or my stories, Following me or my stories, or Reviewing on my past stories._ Thank you _and, _God Bless._

_At the moment of writing this line, the song I'm listening to is — Paris In The Rain, by Lauv._

Without Further delay, I present to you,

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**A Breath of Fresh Air,**

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**A One-shot written for fun. Shouldn't that be the purpose of everything written? For Fun.**

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After Lapblood's fur was thoroughly groomed— or as best he could accomplish— Gregor didn't even bother walking away. He just flopped down on the ground next to the gray rat and breathed in as many lungfuls of air as possible. Of course, it wasn't combing through Lapblood's surprisingly silky hair that had done this. It may have taken a while, but it hadn't exhausted him. No, what had tired him was being an eleven-year-old kid, trekking though the jungle days on end. Surprising? I know, who would have expected that to tire him out. _No, _he should be _full _of energy. Note the sarcasm in those sentences. At least now he had water. Precious, oh, precious water. He would never let extra run through the drain in the sink at home again. He would take short showers, preserving as much as possible. If this trip had accomplished anything, it was reveling to Gregor how beloved H2O truly was. The sense of relief that had flown through his body when he'd gulped down the water in the spring had amazed him, and terrified him all at once. And then Ripred just had to lay into Lapblood.

"Stupid rat." thought Gregor. Didn't he understand that Lapblood was mourning? Gregor may not have done many things in his life, but he'd seen plenty of death throughout the past few months. He'd never seen Ripred be so severe about it. Why was he so bothered? Sure, they were close to dying in a jungle infested with man-eating— No, scratch that— everything-eating plants but... Yeah, that would have been more than enough for the scarred rat. If he was anything, he was a survivor. And survivors root out the weaknesses.

'You are only as strong as your weakest link.' Gregor remembered. He didn't know if that was the true quote, maybe he was combining two different things, but it seemed to apply in the moment. Or maybe not. His brain was still a bit frazzled.

Perhaps this was why he responded without hesitation when Lapblood, who was apparently awake, asked him a question. Her brain must have been a bit frayed as well, because she didn't try to keep her voice down; then again neither did he.

"How did you know? About my pups?" she asked. Gregor stared up at the vines above them.

"Heard you and Mange talkin'." he muttered in monotone. Lapblood hummed.

"We were wrong." she said after a minute of silence. Gregor heard shuffling that sounded like discomforting. No doubt the rest of the group were uncomfortable hearing their conversation. Either that, or they were busy pinching themselves because, 'A Gnawer admitted they were wrong to a human; It's a miracle!'

"'Bout what?" said Gregor.

"The fruit. We shouldn't have made you go." said Lapblood.

"You didn't. I chose to, didn't I?" said Gregor.

"Yes, but we had to threaten your sister. Truthfully I believe Mange was more comfortable having you along. Being a rager and all. Perhaps I was as well." said Lapblood.

"Bunch of good it did us." said Gregor. They were silent for a while more after that. Gregor heard a few snores, heard the clicking of Temp. He wondered if their surroundings truly was safe in this area of the jungle. Those plants with the fruit had seemed just fine until... well, yeah. But then again, if it wasn't, Luxa probably wouldn't have led them here. Then again, maybe that was her plan. She did almost let Gregor sink into quicksand, did she not? Gregor mentally shook his tired head. He didn't feel like thinking about that now.

"Do you believe what you said?" quesitioned Lapblood.

"I say a lot of things." said Gregor dryly.

"Some say, to many." Ripred muttered an agreement off to the side.

"About my pups," Lapblood continued. It took Gregor a second to decipher the meaning behind her dazed words. He wasn't sure if it was because she was being elusive, or if it was due to his own stupor. Probably a nasty combination of both.

"Yes." said Gregor. "Like I said, the yellow powder's on its way. And if my... information, is correct, they had no signs of the plague when you left." Lapblood seemed to let a breath go. Even hope that is possibly false, is hope.

"Family is weird, isn't it." the rat stated her sentence more like a fact than a question. "One minute, you're trying to save them, the next you wish they'd just leave you alone. Then your trying to save them again. Don't ever have kids. Too much trouble."

Gregor let out a dry chuckle. "I don't see myself livin' long enough for that." Gregor responded discordantly. He took a swig of a water bag. He wasn't sure where he got it, but he wasn't going to complain. There was some more uncomfortable shifting around him, and he even thought he saw something in the vines. "Probably Luxa," he thought. Suddenly, he felt a swell of anger in his stomach. He felt his mouth curl a little in animosity.

"Why not?" asked Lapblood. Gregor almost jumped from his revere, but refrained himself. Lapblood was kind of nice to talk to; he'd be able to complain all he wanted without others hearing. Then again, others _were _listening. Or were they? There's that haziness again. "There are no more prophecies. That I know of, at least. Did the Humans tell you there was another?"

Gregor snorted. "Does that matter? They never told me about the other ones, did they? Nope. They waiting until they could trick me, or... pressure me into it. Even now, I'd agree with anyone holding an ice cream sandwich under my nose."

Lapblood made a unintelligent sound in her throat. Probably humans never talked bad about Regalia as a whole before. "Well, there are plenty of things I don't tell my pups. Maybe they're just trying to protect you." There was another guttural sound again, but coming from somewhere to his left. It _was _surprising to hear a Gnawer defend— Though she did seem rather hesitant— a human.

Gregor though, almost snorted again. Instead, he went for a sneer. "Protect me? Yeah. _right_. No offense, but you've hit the wall next to the dart board on that one. They'll protect me from preparing for a prophecy that was written by some crazed lunatic, but want me to kill a baby, just to almost kill _me _for _not _doing that? No, I don't think so. Who are they protecting me from, exactly? The Gnawers? I don't think so. Myself? What; my dignity, heart, soul? I think I've already lost that murdering people. Not to once again mention being put on trial for not killing a baby. If they were trying to 'protect' me, they would have had me haul ass back to the overland by now." That's how Gregor knew he wasn't going to be able to stop himself from spilling his heart out, though he just said he didn't have one. He _never _cussed. His mother would have grounded him for a month for that, not to mention that he _really _disliked it. It just seemed... crude. Granted, the last few months had kind of recreated the word 'Crude' for him. "Let's go over it, shall we? My first visit, They don't allow me to leave. Okay. Then I try to run away, which I have to give the Regalian's props for saving me from Fangor and Shade or whatever. Then they tell me that their mortal enemies, have taken my dad hostage. According to Vikus he dad been getting confirmation on this for some time. So, what, they know that someone was being imprisoned by the rats, and they only choose_ then _to send out a rescue mission? They wait for an _eleven__-year-old _boy from a different world, because someone had written the most confusing poem of all time? Ha!" There was an uncomfortable silence throughout the camp. What had he just said? Called their founder a crazed lunatic who wrote confusing prophecies? He hoped this didn't get out, because if they dislike him before, they'd definitely hate him now. Oh wait, they were right there. Eh, whatever. Can't change it now. Besides, he couldn't deny partially agreeing with himself.

For a second, Gregor thought Lapblood really _had _fallen asleep until she replied. She avoided admitting whether she agreed with him by just saying, "You certainly are a breath of fresh air, aren't you?"

What Gregor didn't know was that many people in the group was contemplating his words. Questioning how he was used. Questioning _that _he was _used. _Ripred was wondering if he should go easier on him, because he'd never thought about how Gregor would feel about it; of course, he very sparely thought about feelings. Even Luxa, still sitting on a branch above the Overlander's head was furrowing her eyebrows. She would try, she guessed, to be nicer to him. He certainly wouldn't remember this, on account of dehydration, so what could it hurt?

"Yeah," responded Gregor, "I guess I am." And with that, he crashed into the abyss of sleep.

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First of all, as always, thank you for reading this. Thank you very much. second, I want to say I'm not trying to make the Underlanders into bad guys that they're not. This was just an idea that popped into my head that I felt would be fun to experiment with. As I said in the most recent, (At the time of writing this) chapter of GATNPC I'm moving at the moment so don't expect something _too _soon. Perhaps another one-shot, if this one is liked, but that is the most I can do at the moment. I'll be able to really jump back into writing around... September 25th? Somewhere around there.

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_Fancied it? = Review_

_Despised it? = Review_

_Desire to assassinate me for being such a blatant idiot? = Review!_

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"**You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."  
―Winston Churchill**


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